Yoga Online L—Z - Part 2

Learn How To Dance, Breathe, and Sleep Yoga witha 1-hour DVD with a 44-page Manual of step-by-step preliminary stretches and instructions for 30 postures performed in the Yoga Dance.

The Ultimate Deep Sleep Relaxation on the DVD is also available in audio on a 30-minute CD for easy listening in bed. Contact Kathryn if you would like to purchase a CD, DVD Kit, or both. A shopping cart is no longer available, because I just can't keep up with one!

This second section, L through Z, has some of my favorite sites of all—at the end... So many Yoga sites begin with Y! I also include links A through K throughout this section—to make it easy to move back and forth from A-Z.

Llewellyn is always a good place to go for definitions. This is a simple one: “A Chakra is a spinning vortex of energy created within ourselves by the interpenetration of consciousness and the physical body. Through this combination, Chakras become centers of activity for the reception, assimilation and transmission of life energies. Uniting the Chakras is what we experience as the “self.” It is through our Chakras that our self grows and changes and interacts with the world.”

Maharishi Spiritual University of America (MSUA) opened its doors in September 2000 on the campus of the Mother Divine program in North Carolina. Since then, students of all ages have been rejoicing in the opportunity to study, experience, and apply the field of Total Knowledge—their own pure consciousness—as the focus of their education. The College of Maharishi Vedic Medicine, Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, IA has been very successful for many years. If you have heard of Transcendental Meditation, Maharishi is the one who brought it to the western world with the Beatles way back in the 1960s.

A short note: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, died Tuesday, February 6, 2008, in Vlodrop, the Netherlands. He was believed to have been 91. We all feel his essence. Our gratitude for his loving presence lasts forever.

To get the proper visualization of the Chakra system, study this image and read about the endocrine glands. According to this site, endocrine glands release hormones (chemical messengers) into the bloodstream to be transported to various organs and tissues throughout the body. For instance, the pancreas secretes insulin, which allows the body to regulate levels of sugar in the blood. The thyroid gets instructions from the pituitary to secrete hormones which determine the pace of chemical activity in the body (the more hormone in the bloodstream, the faster the chemical activity; the less hormone, the slower the activity). I only suggest this site to get a good visual of the glands.

Meditation and Patanjali's Yoga
Books and classes on meditation, spiritual practices, japa, and Raja, Karma, Jnana, Bhakti Yoga. Introducing a new book Meditation, Mind and Patanjalis Yoga by Swami Bhaskarananda. The Society is affiliated with the Ramakrishna Order. It's the Vedanta Society of West Washington.

The Meditation Society of America's Website. Whether you're a beginner, expert, or somewhere in between, you will find valuable information on meditation techniques and concepts from all traditions throughout the world. Check out Beginners if you are just starting to meditate.

“Like water, when we allow ourselves to flow, we are naturally drawn down the channels that we are meant to take; we go to the places where we are meant to be.” —Hyunmoon Kim, Taoist Master

This site has good intentions. There isn't a lot here, but you will learn a rundown of meditation techniques through a list. For example, included are Transcendental Meditation, Kriya Meditation, Zen Meditation, and many more. Each article is only one short page, but it could lead to more people being interested in one of the many methods.

The Home page quote: “The true nature of the gods is that of magical images shaped out of the astral plane by mankind's thought, and influenced by the mind.” —Dion Fortune

This is an online encyclopedia of the occult, mysticism, magic, paranormal and more. It is rich with information once you start clicking on the links. No graphics, no designs, just text and color. There are links to pertinent all-text sites, too. It's easy to navigate. Definitions are good. Links are knowledge-filled.

Founded in 1964 by Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati (then known as Ramamurti S. Mishra, M.D.), this ashram is nestled in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains one hour from New York City. The spiritual retreat and educational center of the Yoga Society of New York, Inc., it is open year round for all those interested in meditation, the universal teachings of Yoga and Vedanta, and East-West cultural exchange. Programs emphasize self-awareness and are dedicated to world peace through mutual understanding. Since Dr. Mishra's passing, the ashram maintains the same dedication.

Sanskrit language and alphabet. Here is another site where you can learn Sanskrit, a classical Indian language and the parent of the Indo-Aryan languages. Sanskrit is still used as literary and liturgical language by about 200,000 people. Efforts are currently being made to revive it as a spoken language.

Click on this site when you have some time to spend reading through the incredible words of Sai Baba. There are no words to describe this site. It is intelligent, professional and extremely well done. There is more to read here than on most sites about Yoga.

Optimal breathing for superior health, peak performance, life extension. Free email newsletter, breathing tests, tips, articles. Health, weight loss, fatigue, longevity, clinical research. Breathing self-help manual, recorded exercises, lectures. Obviously, any site that teaches breathing will be here as a link, since place enormous importance on learning how to breath (that is why it is included with sound on this Web site).

“Nothing in life is trivial. Life is whole wherever and whenever we touch it, and one moment or event is not less sacred than another.” Vimala Thakar is the powerful woman who wrote this and it appears on the home page. This site has many quotes that are very inspiring to anyone who seeks enlightenment.

Wow! If you go to this site and type in Yoga, you'll find hundreds of articles from journals, ezines, links, and on and on it goes. This is called The World's Largest Online Library. I doubt if that is true, but it certainly has A LOT of content about Yoga. Worth going to.

If you want to know something about Yoga, Pranayama, meditation, the Maha Mantra, Krishna, Bhakti or Krishna consciousness, enter this site. There are some beautiful images from India, quotes to keep, and this where you can learn more about Vedanta.

Peter Russell is one of the smartest people I've ever known. I probably felt intimidated by him because of his genius, but he's such a nice guy that I got over that feeling very quickly. I met him in the 80s when I was in a relationship with someone who is close to him. I was lucky enough to spend some time with this mental giant, listening to his incredible stories and seeing photographs he took of the Valley of Flowers in India. He has even translated the Upanishads. I saw him again at one of the Prophets Conferences a couple of years ago in the Keys (Florida). His presentation was the most positive and inspiring of anyone I heard that day. And this Three-Minute Meditation is just delightful and relaxing, because Peter has a very soothing voice with a wonderful British accent. His site is also enormously educating and fun, so once you have done the meditation, be sure to take a mind-expanding journey around
Peter's site. You can learn A LOT here, and you can purchase some of his phenomenal books directly from him, too. The Global Brain is one everyone should have in their bookshelf.

This is very different than anything else here. Tibetan pulsing is defined here, and Tibetan Eye Reading. This is not a large site, but there are many wonderful pages. I add the gallery (2nd site above), because the art is so beautiful and is inspired by Tibet (a place I have always been drawn to on a very deep level). It will always be difficult for me to understand how a country can just go into another country and wipe it out completely. That The Dalai Lama has not been able to return to Tibet is simply unacceptable. The fact that the world has not come together to end this ongoing atrocity is incomprehensible.

This book is an abridged version of the author's The Path of Serenity and Insight: An Explanation of the Buddhist Jhanas, (C) 1985 Motilal Banarsidass, New Delhi. This abridgment is published in the Wheel series by permission of the original publisher. This is very inspiring to read. Learn how to meditate in the deepest possible way. Not quite sure why this is called Saigon.com, because it seems to be based in Sri Lanka. This is the Buddhasasana home page of The Jhanas in Theravada Buddhist Meditation by Bhikkhu Henepola Gunaratana. As long as this site is up, it's well worth downloading all of this information. Fantastic gift!

Sahaj Marg Meditation. This site provides pages and pages of how-to meditation techniques. “Constant brooding over our own afflictions increases our worries. Our attachment to them develops and we become rigidly entangled in their intricacies. If we keep ourselves concerned with the clearing off of the limitations set up by the expansion and contraction of the forces, our purpose may be rightly served.”

This is a wonderful Glossary of Sanskrit words. Sri Ma Anandamayi, widely recognized as a personality of great spiritual eminence, was the embodiment of a joyous self-sufficiency that enraptured the hearts of all who came near her. There is a lot of information on this site. Check out the home page of Anandamayi to see where you would like to go on your own. I include this page for everyone who is studying Yoga and would like to know more about where it came from and what the words mean.

The home page address does not work without going to this page first - not sure why. The objective of this site is to provide an overview of the lives and teachings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. The enlightened words of Sri Aurobindo are easy to find here, but it's everything else that the people continue to do that is astonishing so many years after his death. When I first began to study Yoga, I was drawn to books by Aurobindo. I had dreams of travelling to India to study at his Auroville, “the city of dawn.” Follow some of the links to find articles on Yoga meditation, philosophy and technology.

Sri Aurobindo—Additional Links

If you have an interest in Aurobindo, this site is comprehensive. There is so much to read here, you could take weeks just moving from one link to another reading wonderful articles. It's a text-rich site of information.

Sri M.P. Pandit served as the personal secretary to the Mother at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, and the Mother became the entire focus of his life. He studied the classical scriptures and living spiritual traditions of India, following in the footsteps of Sri Aurobindo and Sri T.V. Kapaly Sastry. There is a lot of content here about Sri Aurobindo and images.

This is obviously a dedication to Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. There are paintings, drawings, articles, and much more, all related to Aurobindo. It's not always easy to get around, but you will if you keep trying. There is also music on this site.

SRI AUROBINDO TRAVEL TIP...Just a personal tip from me. If you are ever in Pensacola, Florida, be sure to visit The Integral Knowledge Study Center at Sri Aurobindo Circle. This Center is owned and facilitated by Rand Hicks, who travels to Auroville in India every year. He also sends out updated information about everything that has to do with Sri Aurobindo in The Peacock Letter, a quarterly publication. Requests for subscriptions should be sent to: The Integral Knowlege Center, 221 Clematis St., Pensacola, FL 32503. Tell him Kathryn told you... Rand Hicks is one of those rare people you are lucky if you get the chance to meet.

Choose to watch the Flash opening pages of this site. Beautiful music and wonderful images of the great Gurus. There is much here on Vedanta. A wonderful site packed with information that you can practice and use in your daily life. I have been reading Vivekananda since 1970 and never get tired of learning something new from his writings.

This a wonderful site. Simple, straightforward, in English and Korean. The name says exactly what it is. Sun Do combines Yoga postures and breathing to strengthen internal energy, or Chi (energy). Information on centers, retreats, and a description of the main retreat center in Vermont.

I repeat this link here, just in case you missed it under Peter's name. He is one of the smartest people I've ever known. I met him years ago when I was in a relationship with someone who was very close to him. I was lucky enough to spend some time with him. I saw him at one of the Prophets Conferences a couple of years ago in the Keys (Florida). His talk was the most positive and inspiring of anyone I heard that day. And this little meditation is just wonderful, because he has a very soothing voice with a delightful accent. His site is also really fun, so once you have done the meditation, be sure to take a mind-expanding journey with Peter Russell. He has great products for sale on his site and where he takes you with this meditation is absolutely perfect.

This is a commercial site for a Vastu Interior Designer, but she gives the wonderful definition of what Vastu means: “The Vedic spiritual science of architecture and design, is arguably the world's oldest holistic design system. Vastu uses the human body as the guiding force in the creation of space; and the word vastu refers to all created space, including the universe, every building, and the human form. Vastu's ancient wisdom, which is so valid today, shows us how to create personal spaces so that they honor the laws of the universe and establish harmony with the self and nature.” With that already written, it is not necessary for me to add to it!

This site is quite comprehensive. There are many articles about Vastu Yoga and Vedanta. Well worth the time to sift through what seems interesting to you.

“Because of Vastu Shastra, the whole universe gets good health, happiness and prosperity. Human beings attain divinity with this Shastra. Knowledge of Shilpa Shastra and the existence of this world are co-related. Followers of Vastu Shastra get not only worldly pleasures but also experience heavenly bliss.” —Vastushastra (Vishwakarma)

Yoga Meditation of the Sivananda Tradition in Berkeley, CA. Asanas postures, Pranayama breathing techniques, Meditation and balanced lifestyle for overall equilibrium and inner peace. Run in the spirit of Karma Yoga service by volunteers.

Visions Beyond Enlightenment is a website of paintings inspired by sages who have gone beyond realization to achieve final objectives of Yoga.This website is dedicated to an old age home for old cowbulls saved from slaughterhouses.

The Vivekananda Vedanta Network is an online project sponsored by the Ramakrishna Vedanta Society, Boston. Its objective is to make Swami Vivekananda’s ideas and insights easily accessible online. As part of this objective, the site also provides information for understanding Vedanta as a field for deep study as well as a method of personal practice.

There are many books that have been published from Vivekananda's presentations in the United States and England before the turn of the 20th century. He was a powerful man who shocked everyone with his brilliance and inability to be negative. Everyone was drawn to him and the love that emanated from him. I first read his books when I began to study the Vedas and the Vedanta Philosophy in 1970. I started by reading Ramakrishna, and that led me to Vivekananda (1863-1902). As you can see from this image of him, he was quite striking. His books had a major impact on my life.

This is a different Krishnamurti than I had here earlier, obviously. This site has a lot of videos with him talking about all kinds of subjects. Really interesting. I wish we could have had videos, film footage, or audiotapes of more Gurus from so long ago. I implore people who have such items to put them on the Web for all to see or hear!

A practical introduction to working on your mind using Buddhist meditation techniques. Includes many RealAudio guided meditations and also offers online courses. “Meditation techniques can help you develop calmness and tranquility, reduce stress, and have a richer, deeper, more spiritual experience of life. We offer a wealth of information on meditation techniques that you can work through at your own pace as you explore your spirituality and learn to calm your mind.

An interpretation by William Q. Judge, originally published 1889. This is the Theosophical University Press electronic version. Due to current limitations in the ASCII character set, and for ease of searching, no diacritical marks appear in this electronic version of the text. It's straight text format, no images, no whistles, nothing. This is the best place to come to read Patanjali that I've seen so far. Read everything on this site if you want to learn Yoga, but be prepared to take time.

This is one of my very favorite Web sites on Yoga. This guy knows what he is doing. I wrote to tell him so and he responded with a very nice e-mail. There are incredible articles and lessons on how to do Yoga. He has great links that you should also look at if you are serious about learning Yoga. I am not repeating everything from his site, since he has already done it. The fact that he has this from Yogi Bhajan on his home page is enough for me! I had a long, private "session" with Yogi Bhajan in 1993. It was one of the high points of my life. He was overwhelming with his joy of life.

“We do not need new choices.
We are flooded with choices.
We need an elevated capacity
to make choices.”
—Yogi Bhajan

If you want to study Yoga and don’t know where there are classes, go to this site. It’s an unbelievable amount of work. The people who put this together have included classes worldwide. I even found someone in Miami I had never heard about! What a spectacular service! There is much more on this site, too—including Yoga retreats, trips and links.

Yoga in daily life—the holistic system for body, mind and soul by Paramhansa Swami Maheshwarananda. Based on ancient teaching of Yoga and adapted for today. “Yoga is a holistic system for body, mind, consciousness and soul, based on ancient teachings of yoga and adapted for today. Through practice you can regain your physical, psychic, social and spiritual health and achieve self-realization and God-realization.”

Obviously, if you are going to study Yoga, you have to subscribe to the Yoga Journal. It is THE definitive magazine on Yoga, and it's been around forever (or so it seems). I was lucky enough to be flown out to Berkeley, California, to be interviewed at the Yoga Journal for the position of Editor-in-Chief in 1993. My father had died the day before, five months after I had lost my mother—along with everything else that happened after Hurricane Andrew in Miami. It was a great test of my strength. It was all I could do to keep from crying in front of them all at a restaurant while we ate lunch. Obviously, I didn't get the job. I was too devastated, so I didn't expect it either. It was nice to even be considered though, since Yoga and publishing have been my two greatest loves!

When I lived in Sweden my beloved teacher, Eugenia Basilewsky, gave me the book The Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda. I was spellbound by his warmth and humor and fell in love with his Guru, Yukteswar. I discovered the correspondence course that SRF offered with Yogananda's personal poems and weekly lessons. He wrote these long before his death in 1957. I studied these for many years. Each week I would receive a wonderful envelope from the California headquarters with a poem by Yogananda on the first page, and then the course of lessons to be studied and practiced that week. I highly recommend doing this if you really want to understand the depth of Yoga and its true meaning. Yogananda loved to talk (you can buy the tapes directly from SRF, too), and he loved music, dance and song. He was a real lover of life and everyone who knew him talked about the glow of light that emanated from
his body. Just look at the gentle smile of love in this image of him and melt. I still do after more than 40 years.

Yogananda—Additional Links

Here are additional links to sites about Yogananda, who has been one of the most important influences in my life when it comes to my understanding of Yoga. If you have a site about him, please send it to me so I can include it here.

Photo albums of Self-Realization Fellowship pilgrimage sites, Babajis Cave, Kansas City Meditation Group of SRF, info on Rajarsi Janakananda James J. Lynn, Yogananda in K.C., an SRF Quiz. I try to include sites that have valuable information about Yogananda and who provide free articles.

This is really fun. Short and sweet. It's all about Yukteswar, Yogananda's Guru. But! There are links to 3 videos here of Yogananda. In the third one (far right link at bottom of page) Yogananda shows the correct way to sleep to experience consciousness with dreams. It's absolutely amazing.

This is a wonderful site to visit often just to listen to him speak of love and kindness in only the way that he could. “If you cannot see God in All, you cannot see God at all,” he often said. This is a tribute to Yogi Bhajan, who died October 6, 2004. Also check out CommunityVideos. Here you can listen to Yogi Bhajan giving talks (unfortunately there is beautiful music that is just too loud and gets in the way, but you can still hear him if you strain). He talks about the lighthouse, and about being lighthouses and investing in your state of being.

A quote from Yogi Bhajan: “If you cannot see God in all, you can't see God at all.”

And here he is, all smiles, with The Dalai Lama. I had a private session with Yogi Bhajan in Pennsylvania during a week-long Yoga conference. He sat there and told me everything about my life as he laughed heartily and then told me what I needed to do. This is the sort of thing one never forgets—direct words from an enlightened Guru. I will never forget his indescribable presence, and this was two weeks after he had open-heart surgery. He told me (and I'm not making this up), “You are a Divine Goddess. You must teach! Why are you not teaching?” He said all this with a big smile and love in his heart shining through his enormous eyes. His words were inspiring, and seeing and listening to him online is also inspiring. I thank the organization he created for this profound gift he has left the world in his physical absence. He was loved by everyone, respected by politicians, and traveled the world to help others see the light.

Neem Karoli Baba, the Teacher referred to in this link, is perhaps best known as the Guru embraced by Ram Dass (Richard Alpert, shown left) in the late 1960s in India. Generally referred to as Maharajji or Babaji, he was, by all accounts, a sweet, simple man. Beyond that, he is an extraordinary teacher. This site also includes content on Krishnamurti, Vivekananda, Emerson, Gibran, and many more.

DISCLAIMER: Links contained on this site are merely for your convenience. We do not endorse or support the individuals, companies or organizations. Nor are we responsible for the content, graphics or services available on the hyperlinks. Our goal is to provide easy access to Websites to people who are interested in Yoga and Meditation, and we hope that you will find them useful and enjoyable. If you run into a problem with any of these Websites, please contact them directly, not us (unless the content is objectionable, please let us know!. Thank you very much.